THE CONTROLLER

1 Introduction

MultiFLEX2 controller is a multifunctional controller which is specially designed for intelligent robot and small size/scale intelligent equipment.

l         A 520MHz, 32-bit high performance embedded processor is the heart of this controller;

l         The OS is Linux, so multi-task program can run on this controller;

l         Powerful 500MIPS max processing performance yet with only 2-watt power consumption. the size is only 11x7cm and weight less than 200g;

l         It can control DC motor (it must be compatible with Uptech BDMC series or FAULHABER MCDC/BLDC series  servo drivers) and control servo (include all the traditional R/C servo, our CDS55XX series robot servo, Robotis robot servo like AX 12+); it can control speed, position, torque, up to 64-way motors or 64-way servos;

l         Various sensors can be connected through 12 digital I/O and 8 alalog input channels and collect data to process and make decision;

l         Camera can be connected to achieve face recognition, color recognition, shape recognition and other intelligent features; Chinese speech recognition and voice synthesis can be realized with the build in speech engine, suitable for applying to family service robots, teaching and entertainment robots and special education services robots;

l         It is equipped with RS-422 bus, USB bus, and wireless Ethernet (WiFi). A variety of functional modules, such as flash disk, Ethernet, Bluetooth module, USB camera, electronic compass, GPS receiver and other equipment, can be directly connected to this controller.

2 The comparison with typical 1.6GHz industrial PC

l         Small size, low power consumption and low price. Typical IPC size is 4 times as big as MultiFLEX2, and the power consumption is 8 to 10 times as much as MultiFLEX2 while the price of MultiFLEX2-PXA270 is equivalent to a quarter of a typical IPC;

l         Specifically designed for robot controlling. All the features like motor control, servo control, I / O, analog inputs and outputs, RS-422 bus and power management have been integrated; however, if IPC is used to construct a robot, a large number of peripherals like I/O card, analog/digital converter card, CAN-bus card, motion control card and so on are needed, which will cost above 10-20 times more than MultiFLEX2-PXA270;

l         Supporting the NorthSTAR intergrated graphical robotic development environment, which gives convinience to robot development ;

l         The performance of a 500MIPS processor is enough for education  and entertainment robots, or service robots. It can handle complicated calculating tasks like video processing, network, speech recognition and synthesis.

3 The comparison with 8~16bit MCUs

l        High processing performance. The MultiFLEX2-PXA270 delievers 500MIPS while a MCU based controller delievers 5~20MIPS performance.

l        Dealing with complicated calculating tasks like video processing, speech recognition and synthesis while microcontroller cannot. So using MultiFLEX2-PXA270 to create small humanoid robots can realize advanced intelligence like video recognition, speech recognition and synthesis.

l        Thanks to the embedded LINUX, MultiFLEX2-PXA270 is able to handle multi-task operation. This is not typical on MCU boards. Therefore, the robot built with MultiFLEX2-PXA270 can be more intelligent, more flexible.

l        Built-in bulk-storage memory; Flash disk, camera etc. which are convenient to connect to the USB-host port; function of sound recording, video recording and real-time transmission of audio and video(Via Bluetooth or WiFi); communications using TCP/IP. So it’s very suitable for security, home surveillance robot, or as the main controller of intelligent devices, such as intelligent care beds.

l Software IDE: NorthSTAR Robotic IDE

l Refer to: MultiFLEX2-AVR controller(8bit, low power, highly real-time)